DG: Most certainly. That's been our hope all along. Our goal from the very beginning was to provide a sort of virtual commons. What it says at the top of our website is, "An international dialogue on belief, one essay at a time." And that's very much how we view this, that it is a dialogue.
The way I visualize it is that there's this huge room, and there are millions of people all sitting in a circle, and one person after another gets up and reads their essay, and everybody listens respectfully. We're not commenting on each others' beliefs, we're not having long flame wars in the comments section in our website, because we don't have a comments section, pointedly and purposefully.
We are trying to bring a certain degree of civility into public discourse about beliefs, which, in many cases, so polarize people that they can't even listen to each other, even when they have much in common. So that's very much something that we hoped for, and are gratified that, to a large degree, it has come true.
JB: Well, you've really thought of everything, Dan. This is an amazing project and it's a thrill to discuss it with you. Thank you so much for breathing new life into TIB and for sharing this wonderful story with us.
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This I Believe website
part one of this interview
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